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Show to' help soppiy suclt food requirements. require-ments. In contrast to the situation situa-tion following some of our earlier wars, at the end of the present conflict con-flict there will be no unoccupied good land in this country ready for cultivation. culti-vation. To make additional land available for settlement would require irriga-tion irriga-tion drainage and clearing. It is estimated that there are something like 30 million to 40 million acres of such land. Of this total 10 million to 20 million acres could be reclaimed re-claimed in western states through irrigation, and another five million acres of fertile land in the Mississippi Missis-sippi river delta through drainage. About 15 million acres requiring drainage and clearing are located at various points over the country. In addition, officials estimate that part of the 20 million acres acquired ac-quired by the army and navy for camps, proving grounds and other purposes could be returned to cultivation culti-vation to provide farms for at least 25,000 families. It has been suggested sug-gested that this land, as well as reclaimed re-claimed land, be held for sale to ex-service ex-service men. Besides helping to meet food needs and providing settlement opportunities opportuni-ties for qualified ex-service men, a reclamation program would probably proba-bly be an important part of any public pub-lic works plan to provide employment employ-ment during demobilization. Boom for Farm In Peace Is Seen Economists Say Demand for Foods Will Last Five Years After War. WASHINGTON. American farmers farm-ers will have a market far greater than their ability to produce for at least five years after peace has been declared, according to government economists and farm officials. The predictions of a big market in the years immediately following the war are based on the prospect that the United States will have to send abroad for relief and rehabilitation even more food than it is now sending send-ing for lend-lease and military purposes. pur-poses. The experts' belief in the possibility possibili-ty of permanent agricultural prosperity pros-perity is based on the facts that the world as a whole never has had enough to eat and that no country, including the United States, has ever supplied its own population with enough of the right kinds of food to ; sustain good health as a whole. Take All Farmer Produces. Agriculture department economists econo-mists say that if, at the end of the war, American people are permitted permit-ted to buy all the food they want at present prices and under conditions of a high level of employment, they will take all that farmers will be producing. Nothing would be left, they add, for relief and rehabilitation needs of war-ravaged countries, or to meet the nutritional needs of low-income groups. Farm officials, on the basis of hopes that Industrial production will be maintained at high levels after the war, are planning to Improve agricultural production and the economic eco-nomic and social conditions of farmers. farm-ers. Keystone of those plans Is a selective se-lective expansion of food production, especially of certain livestock products, prod-ucts, fruits and vegetables. That Expansion would be designed to assure as-sure adequate nutrition for all Americans. Amer-icans. Nutritionists estimate that such an expansion would require 40 per cent more dairy products, 80 per cent more truck crops, 20 per cent more eggs and 20 per cent more fruit than the quantities consumed in the 1935-39 period. At average crop yields, these and other needed increases in-creases would require about 40 million mil-lion additional acres of crop land, or about one-eighth more than is now being used to produce food for the home market. Need More Farms. Officials estimate that at least 300,000 new fa ran would be needed |